​300 arrested at Montreal protest against police brutality

Canadian police surrounded an annual protest against police brutality in Montreal, arresting 288 people before the demonstration had barely started.

The police claim the protest was illegal as the participants did
not warn the authorities of their itinerary.

Montreal’s 18th annual protest against police brutality was cut
dramatically short Saturday when police rounded up the
participants. Minutes into the demonstration, riot officers
converged on Jean-Talon Street and began detaining protesters.
According to protesters there was a strong police presence, with
police horses, cars and a helicopter on the scene.

“It was a veritable army of police ... who occupied the area
surrounding the Jean-Talon metro when the protest was to
start,” the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality, which
organizes the annual protest, said in a written statement issued
after the protest.

Police declared the demonstration was illegal and asked the
protesters to disperse. However, the activists carried on
marching, brandishing banners and chanting slogans, such as
“They want us to respect them, but they don’t respect
us!”

Riot police then encircled the protesters and began making
arrests. The majority of the 288 people who were taken into
custody were released shortly afterwards, but four people may be
charged under the Criminal Code for assaulting an officer and
obstructing the police. Several others could face charges of
mischief.

One man sustained injuries to his face during the police
intervention and was tended to by paramedics on the site, said
officers.

“They refused to share their itinerary, and they refused to
give us any details. When we got there, we asked them not to jump
onto the street, and they answered by going into the street and
yelling at us that they were not cooperating,” police
spokesman Ian Lafrenière said. He added that the protest has a
bad reputation with the authorities and on previous occasions the
demonstrations had descended into violence and rioting.

However, activists had a different version of events and have
accused the police of lying about the protesters’ activities.

“It looks good in the media — the police can say (all of
these) people were arrested, were breaking windows and stuff, but
it’s not true. They were doing nothing,” Claudine Lamothe
told the Montreal Gazette.

The Collective Opposed to Police Brutality has staged a protest
in Montreal every year for the past 18 years. This year the
focused their protest on the issue of “social cleansing”
where the authorities try to “get rid of people who are
deemed unwanted,” the group writes on its website. The group
cites an incident in January when an unnamed Montreal police
officer threatened to tie a homeless man to a lamppost in
temperatures of minus 30 if he did not move along. Following the
incident, Lafrenière told the Montreal Gazette that the officer
had been reprimanded for his “unacceptable” behavior.